In 1998, 12 grand jurors convened to look into the unsolved death of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey. After more than a year of poring over evidence, they left the Boulder County Courthouse without a word.

On Friday, 14 years later, an unprosecuted grand jury indictment revealed the grand jury prepared charges of child abuse resulting in death and accessory to a crime for both John and Patsy Ramsey in the death of their daughter.

The four pages released indicated the jury felt that both the Ramseys permitted a child to be "unreasonably placed in a situation which posed a threat of injury to the child's life or health, which resulted in the death of JonBenet Ramsey" and rendered assistance to a person "knowing the person being assisted has committed and was suspected of the crime of murder in the first degree and child abuse resulting in death."

Indictment of John and Patsy Ramsey

Alex Hunter, the Boulder County district attorney at the time, never signed the true bill, apparently believing he could not successfully prosecute due to a lack of evidence.

The criteria for a grand jury indictment is probable cause, and the decision does not have to be unanimous among the grand jurors. Hunter would have had to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt to win at trial.

Both of the charges in the indictment carry a statute of limitation of three years.

The documents -- which had been sealed since the jury concluded its work in late 1999 -- were released by retired Weld County Judge Robert Lowenbach in response to a lawsuit brought by Daily Camera reporter Charlie Brennan and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

After Lowenbach ruled last week that the release of the documents would not violate grand jury secrecy rules, DA Stan Garnett turned over the documents for the judge to review. On Wednesday, Lowenbach ruled that the indictment would be released.

According to the court order, the documents submitted to the court by Garnett consisted of 18 pages, nine relating to each of JonBenet's parents. Lowenbach ruled that only pages signed by the foreman of the grand jury would be considered "official actions" of the grand jury and would thus be releasable. In the end, a total of four pages -- two pages for each parent -- were released.

Lin Wood, an attorney for John Ramsey, said the released indictment means "absolutely zero" in terms of the investigation into JonBenet's death.

"The documents today are a mere historical footnote, a small glimpse into the grand jury proceedings," Wood said. "It's four pages of what would have likely been hundreds of volumes of testimony and exhibit."

John Ramsey, in a letter to Garnett on Sunday, objected to the release of the indictment without the entire grand jury record also being unsealed.

"What you have is nothing more than confusing accusations without any evidence to support the accusations," Wood said Friday. "It's fundamentally unfair to the Ramsey family and the system of justice. If you're going to make public what amounts to an accusation, let's see the evidence."

In response to the request, Lowenbach said grand jury transcripts and other evidence did not constitute "official action" and would not be released. But Wood said the Ramseys deserved an exception.

"This case is unprecedented; there will never be another case like it," Wood said. "What this family has endured now for 17 years merits an exception to the rule. John Ramsey's request should have been honored, not only because it's fair but because it's the right thing to do."

'Don't have the evidence'

JonBenet Ramsey was found dead Dec. 26, 1996, in the basement of her family's Boulder home, 755 15th St. -- which is now 749 15th St. -- several hours after Patsy Ramsey called 911 to say her daughter was missing and that a ransom note had been left behind.

On Oct. 13, 1999, more than a year after the case went to the grand jury, then-DA Hunter announced that the grand jury investigation had come to an end and that no charges would be filed due to a lack of evidence.

Hunter declined to comment when reached by phone Friday.

But Bill Wise, Hunter's former top assistant, said he backs up Hunter's choice.

"I think it was the correct decision," Wise said. "You just don't have the evidence. The totality of everything that was presented by the Boulder Police Department was just insignificant to prosecute."

Jim Kolar, now chief of the Telluride Marshal's Department, was a DA investigator assigned to the case in 2004 by former Boulder DA Mary Lacy. Kolar published a book in 2012 titled "Foreign Faction: Who Really Kidnapped JonBenet?" in which he said evidence pointed toward a family member being involved in the murder as opposed to an intruder.

Kolar said the portion of the indictment that was released indicates that the grand jury came to the same conclusion.

"It seems to me that the grand jury thought there was some merit to the theory that the parents, to one extent or another, knew what happened," Kolar said.

But in 2008, it was determined that DNA evidence found on JonBenet did not match any of the Ramseys. Then-DA Lacy subsequently exonerated John and Patsy Ramsey and their son, Burke. Patsy Ramsey died after a battle with cancer in 2006.

"I think a lot of people think (Lacy) stepped over the line by exonerating the family," Kolar said. "She was relying heavily on the DNA, and I don't know that it was appropriate."

Added Wise, "I never would have done it. I'm not in the business of exonerating people until you have a conviction of somebody, and they don't have a conviction."

Wise did say that future prosecutors are not bound by the exoneration.

"When one DA exonerates, the next DA may say, 'No dice,'" he said.

But Bob Grant, who at that time was the district attorney for neighboring Adams County and was among a small group of prosecutors with whom Hunter met monthly, said the exoneration could still "torpedo" any future trial.

"Mary Lacy would become a witness for the defense, and that's a position a prosecutor never wants to be in," he said.

Lacy could not be reached for comment Friday.

Wood said the exoneration and the DNA made what was revealed Friday irrelevant.

"You didn't have DNA testing then, and that fact alone renders these findings by a grand jury in 1999 to be 100 percent wrong," Wood said.

Opportunity for speculation?

In his argument in early October for the release of the documents, Thomas Kelley -- who represented Brennan and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press pro bono -- said the release of the documents would serve to make the process more transparent.

"This indictment should have been tendered to the court, to whom the grand jury's work belongs, in 1999, not secretly pocketed by the DA while giving the public impression the grand jury did nothing," Kelley said.

Garnett -- who took office 10 years after the jury was disbanded -- had previously rejected two requests by the Camera and Brennan seeking the release of the indictment under the Colorado Open Records Act.

Garnett has written a guest opinion that will be published in Sunday's edition of the Daily Camera, and he declined to comment Friday on the release before the opinion was published.

Grant said at this point, the release of the indictment served no practical purpose.

"What this is doing is providing more opportunity for people to speculate without any basis and drag that little girl out as public spectacle," Grant said. "As a human being, I find that abhorrent."

Wise said because the statute of limitations has passed, the matter is "kind of academic anyhow, other than letting the public know."

But Kolar said that in itself was the reason he agreed with the release.

"I'm happy in some regards that more of the public record has been released," he said. "It's just unfortunate that it's taken so long for the information to reach the public."